<p>My s is in first tier BS, in 9th grade. He has a lot of homework every day,
and wants to do it thoroughly. He wanted to attend couple clubs, but is
complaining that it interferes with his hw, and he doesn't want to sacrifice
it for clubs, so he dropped all clubs, but he has high grades in all subjects.
How important is the participation in clubs? And in general how important
is extra curricular activities for collage application? Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>Have you asked the college councilor at your son’s school this question? He/she could probably give you the most qualified answer.</p>
<p>Over on the Other Forums at CC - the ones about college admission - there are plenty of threads that address this question. Many people feel that colleges want to see that you can do the work and manage to do other things too, so that you will be contributing to college campus life. Maybe there is a less demanding EC that your son could do.</p>
<p>Search on EC’s or Extra Curriculars. You’ll find alot of opinions.</p>
<p>I don’t believe in stacking up on EC’s for the sake of college admissions (I’m just a teenager btw). I would find something he loves or is passionate about and then search for opportunities to purse his passions at boarding school. When you actually are passionate about your activities it’s so much easier to balance it with your work.</p>
<p>being in a lot of clubs wont advance his chances for college admissions. If your sone is not an athlete, identify one or two areas that he really enjoys (art, music,debate, language ,peer leadership etc) and then have him attend a few times – he should attend a few times and familiarize himself with the club. Then you sit down and figure out which one of these 1) he enjoys most and can excel at 2) he will ultimately be able to become a leader/head/captain of. This way he will have spent his 4 yrs doing something he is passionate about, made like-minded friends, and added greatly to his college profile – if a particular college looks at 10 kids from the same school with the same high gpa/ test scores and they only want to take a few, after legacies/connections they will take the kid who has demonstrated a leadership position.</p>
<p>Thank you everybody</p>
<p>Colleges aren’t looking for lots of ECs in lieu of high grades, they’re looking for lots of ECs <em>and</em> high grades.</p>
<p>No it’s not lots of ECs either–it’s all about quality not quantity. Leadership in a few meaningful ECs and high grades. That is the key.</p>
<p>My older son went to bs and as a freshman took piano lessons, played in the jazz band, played baseball, soccer, wrestling, and was a student tour guide. It was pretty hard on him and he struggled to maintain B’s.
We had my younger son hold off on any involvement other than sports (he was V three sports as a freshman) first semester of freshman year. He was able to maintain an A- average, so we told him he could start adding things if he was comfortable. Now he has added his club sport back in, belongs to a club, and is a peer mediator and a student tour guide. He is taking honor’s classes and has managed to hang on to a 3.5 GPA.
I would not have a freshman just dive in. Take it bit by bit. It is very important to try to excel at one or two things rather than spread yourself too thin (as GemmaV wisely councels).</p>
<p>OP – does your S’s school require sports? Many do – which are ECs. If not, and your S goes through an entire 4 years of HS with no non-academic activities, he’ll end up presenting himself to colleges as pretty one dimensional.</p>
<p>If he was taking more than one club, maybe he could cut it down to just one.
Also, its his first year at BS, he may just need to adjust to the work load, than if things let up a bit for him he could start joining clubs next year.
Also, not sure of his sports commitment, but if he is on a JV or V team now and will not make JV or V in the spring, that may be the better time for him to join a club as the thirds teams are not as big of a commitment.</p>
<p>I see too many kids overload/hit the wall/get sick/breakdown about two weeks before the end of term. Too much stress, too much delayed work, too many commitments. And the real stress sets in when AP-level homework kicks in. Assume 1/5 to 2 hours per class per night.</p>
<p>Chose of couple of areas of interest and enjoy. Start slow and add as time allows. Avoid sports coachs who think the world begins and end on the field. Time management and making good choices is what boarding school is all about.</p>